Photo Story: Shutterfly’s Own Photo Book Maker App for iPad

PetaPixel

There is no shortage of apps available to you if you’d like to create a photo book on your smartphone or tablet computer (apps like Mosaic immediately come to mind). But one of the big guys just entered the market.

Shutterfly — the photo storage and publishing service that lets you order everything from prints to iPhone cases decorated with your favorite photo — just released Photo Story: a photo book creation app exclusively for the iPad.

Here’s a quick intro to the app:

As you can see, the “story” part of the name wasn’t included by accident. The photo books that you can create with the free app are meant to be more interactive than your typical album.

To that effect, the app not only lets you create nice-looking photo books by selecting photos from Instagram, Shutterfly, Facebook or your Camera Roll, it also allows you to add 30-second audio clips to every page.

The books themselves come in ten different styles that can be mixed and matched with three size options: 8×8, 8×11 and 8×12-inches. And thanks to the Smart Autofill feature, once you’ve selected your photos, the app can actually arrange them for you.

Afterwards, you can go in and edit what the app’s algorithms have set up for you by adjusting and moving photos around, adding text, and recording any audio snippets you deem appropriate. Here’s a more in-depth video showing the app in use:

Once your photo book is complete, you can share a free digital version with whomever you choose (they don’t even have to own an iPad or have the app to view it) via Facebook or email. And if you really like the book, you can order a hard or softcover copy that Shutterfly will print and mail out to you.

The physical photo books include QR codes that allow the people to pull up the audio recordings or full digital book, and will run you $30, $40 or $60 for a 20-page 8×8, 8×11 or 12×12 version, respectively. Every additional page costs another dollar.

To learn more about the app, head over to Shutterfly’s website. And if you own an iPad and want to give digital photo book (or rather photo story) making a try, head over to the iTunes App Store by clicking here.